14 Nov 2010

It is 50 years since the death of Nobel laureate Albert Camus in a road accident outside Paris. The French-Algerian author of The Outsider and The Plague remains a compelling and controversial figure with his absurdist philosophy and passionate commitment to the outcasts and outsiders. Camus courageously resisted the Nazis in occupied France but was later reviled for his refusal to support Stalinism and its violent excesses. Camus' struggle to live morally in a world without God includes his hatred of 'logical crime' and his rebellion against a scheme of things where children are put to torture.